Posted on July 26th, 2010, by Lisa Goodlin
I’m glad that things are not as bad as I thought they were, that we’re not now rounding up everyone whose politics disagree with the current fashionable ideology. I’m glad that we still have free speech.
Posted on June 30th, 2010, by Lisa Goodlin
It’s not surprising that the spy next door was just the guy next door. After all, serial killer John Wayne Gacy was said to have been a good neighbor. But I am concerned that Vicky Peláez and Juan Jose Lázaro may have been targeted because they are leftists. Perhaps they are indeed Russian spies, but could it be they are the dolphins who got caught in the tuna nets? Was it simply convenient to pick them up along with actual Russian spies? We may pride ourselves that our country is the symbol of freedom, but we often wish to silence those with whom we don’t agree or who challenge the status quo.
Since 2001, many innocent American Muslims have faced charges of everything from terrorism to money laundering because of rampant, irrational fear and bias. Is the government now turning its gaze to the left?
Posted on April 27th, 2010, by Lisa Goodlin
Yesterday was international Boobquake Day, a response to the Islamic cleric who said that inappropriate dress leads to promiscuity which leads to earthquakes! Hm, maybe “earthquakes” is a metaphor. Read about it here.
This idiocy reminds of Jerry Falwell speaking about 9/11:
” I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’”
Image: The Independent.
Posted on April 23rd, 2010, by Lisa Goodlin
My friend Katherine Hughes is a civil liberties activist, and she called my attention to the case of Fahad Hashmi. His story is like something out of a book of fiction, and yet it is frighteningly true. He has been held for two years and will go to trial later this month. His crime? In 2004 he allowed an acquaintance to stay in his London apartment for about two weeks. During that time the acquaintance kept in Fahad’s apartment a suitcase with several raincoats, ponchos, and pairs of waterproof socks. The government alleges that later the acquaintance gave the rainwear to a high-ranking member of Al Qaeda. Thus, Fahad is guilty of material support of terrorism. Unbelievable.
Watch the 12 minute documentary on the case at the FreeFahad website.
Posted on March 22nd, 2010, by Lisa Goodlin
I am glad that the health care reform push was successful. At the same time I’m dismayed by the protesters. There have been reports of racist and homophobic slurs being slung by the anti-reformers. Add to that the anti-woman, anti-compassion, anti-common-sense agenda of preventing “federally funded abortion,” and we have a very scary picture. The conservatives are so good at organizing that if there were a violent revolution competition, I think they would win.
All those who think we’re living in a post-racial, post-anti-gay, post-feminist society can wake up now.
Photo from the Huffington Post.
Posted on March 19th, 2010, by Lisa Goodlin
Well, Mario did his part in cleaning up Syracuse in preparation for NCAA tournament games to be held in our fair (at least this week) city. Last night he walked around the yard and filled two large trash bags with the debris that was uncovered after the big snow melt.
All those fast-food containers, soda cans, beer bottles, and used condoms (ick) that were thrown out of car windows and then covered by snow were revealed after several days of glorious sun and warmth slowly turned the snow and ice from its solid state to liquid. He even picked up a dead squirrel, but I doubt it had been thrown out a car window. It’s more likely that it was run over by a car as it stood in the middle of the street first running one way and then another, its little squirrel thoughts careening inside its head, “Which way do I go, which way do I go!”
So, welcome to Syracuse NCAA visitors! We’ve cleaned up our dead squirrels for you!
[Image by brhefele on flickr.]
Posted on December 23rd, 2009, by Lisa Goodlin
We wish you the best for the holidays. Belated Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy New Year!
Posted on November 28th, 2009, by Lisa Goodlin
My friend Katherine Hughes drew my attention to a news article. The headline reads, “FBI: Ex-doctor in Ohio admitted making pipe bombs.” Authorities found 35 pipe bombs and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his apartment.
Katherine said she was reading through the brief article and couldn’t understand why it didn’t say anything about terrorism. Then it dawned on her. The man is not Muslim.
Posted on November 9th, 2009, by Mario Saenz
The violent attack by a Muslim officer at Ft. Hood is a tragedy in an increasingly militarized state now magnified by anti-Muslim fanaticism. The call by the ultra-conservative “fringe” (now comfortably navigating, however, in the mid-stream of the Republican Party) to expel and ban all Muslims from the U.S. military is simply another step in what is by now the firmly established foreign and domestic “Orientalist” policy of the U.S. government.
The orientalist construction of the non-Western “Other” and the reciprocal construction of the West as the normative standard have a long imperial history. Edward Said’s analysis is still applicable. What is new is the troubling similarity to early 20th Century attacks on Jews throughout much of Europe.
The Muslim of the early 21st Century is becoming the Jew of 100 years ago. The attacks against Muslims take place in the context of militarism, nativism, corporativism, and the mainstreaming of an ultra-rightwing populism that brings together tea-baggers, white supremacists, and neo-Know Nothings like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Drudge, and Rush Limbaugh, with all sorts of opportunists within the political establishment. The mass element of the new right may express resentment towards a multicultural society; it also expresses the will of authoritarians without authority, totalitarians without totality, for a central authority that lashes out against all threats to their fascist aspirations, leashes in all resistance and brings the country back to the mythical unity of the past.
Militarism, nativism, hatred of foreigners, and the corporativist vertical alliance between big capital, and sectors of the middle class: These are together elements of fascist terror for which only one component seems to be lacking: political control of the machinery of government.